I’m flying to California tomorrow. There is a road race on Saturday, the kick off to the Southern California road season. I was looking at the event flyer and was a little worried about it being a little too hot for me. Sometimes inland in Southern California can be a little toasty. Like in November when I did a cross race at 90 degrees. But, then I saw the event flyer. Here is the rules section-

Rules: Race runs rain or shine. All USCF and NCCA rules apply. Riders must wear helmets at all times. Course is open to
traffic; obey all traffic regulations. Centerline rule is strictly enforced. Littering on the course is prohibited. You will get no
warning—you will be disqualified and fined by the CHP on your first offense. “Appropriate clothing policy”: if a rider does
not have appropriate gear suited to the cold weather, then they will not be allowed to start.

I thought, wow, they must think it is going to be cold and, wow, a clothing rule. I’ve nearly never ran into an “appropriate clothing policy”. Is a policy a rule? Anyway, I’m wondering who decides what appropriate clothing actually is. Is there a cycling official Maitre d’ that makes sure you have the right clothing on? I don’t get it. I don’t really understand it. Maybe they’ve had a problem with all these LA and San Diego guys showing up at 4000 ft. in January and getting caught it a snow storm?

The only other time I’ve been associated with anything near this is at The Tour of Southland, in Invercargill, New Zealand. There was a TTT for the prologue and when we pulled up to start, the UCI commissaire, who was from Japan, told us to take our knee warmers off. This was 1 minute before our start. He didn’t speak English and we didn’t really understand what he was talking about. It was in the 40’s. So, we frantically ripped our knee warmers off and barely made the start.

After the race, I asked our team manager what that was all about. He went and talked to the commissaire and the next day he brought me a printout in English that explained there was a UCI rule that addressed clothing extending below your knees. Mainly concerning aerodynamics. A couple stages later there was a time trial. I had flatted the day before and got a crummy wheel change, so I was pretty much out of GC. So I was going to roll the time trial. It was barely 50, so I had on knee warmers and a long sleeve jersey. Going to the starting ramp, the UCI guy stopped me and told me it wasn’t cold enough to wear knee warmers. In sign language since he didn’t speak any English. So I just took my knee warmer and folded them up over my knees, to abide by the official rule. He didn’t think that was too funny and there was no way he was going to let me start in inappropriate clothing. So, I scrambled once again, not that it really mattered, took off my knee warmers and rode the TT at 20 mph.

Seriously here, I don’t think it is anyone’s business, other than the rider, how much clothing a rider wears when he is racing. If this appropriate clothing rule would be enforce in cross, I wouldn’t have been able to start the last few National Championships in shorts. I usually don’t like anything over my knees. I’ve been training down to around 50 degrees bare legged recently. But, there are tons of guys that wear leg warmers over 60. To each his own. It is ludicrous to think that someone other that the racer themselves should decide on the appropriate clothing.

I don’t think it is going to be an issue on Saturday. The temperature is supposed to be in the mid 70’s in San Diego. I can’t image that it could be that much cooler at 4000 ft. altitude.

Since we’re on the subject of cycling clothing, The Clymb has a bunch of Craft cycling stuff on sale that seems pretty cheap. Here is the link, you have to sign in to view, but it’s not a long procedure.

Pretty wouldn't be able to start in San Diego?

Kevin Pauwels probably couldn't be wearing these in New Zealand.

I flew to San Diego yesterday. I was sort of behind schedule all this week from roofing, riding most of the daylight hours and a sundry of other things. I wasn’t flying until after 6 so I had all day to pack and get ready.

I went to the bank and deposited a check and the teller there needed to see my driver’s license and told me that my driver’s license was expiring next week. That threw a whole new twist in the day. I thought I would be at the driver’s license exam place all afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised that all I had to do was look into a scope to do a eye test and then give them $38 and it was done. I was in and out in less than 5 minutes.

So, I called Bill up and went for a couple hour ride. It was pretty windy still, but felt alright. Kind of sore from finishing up the roofing yesterday, but not so sore that I wasn’t pedaling round. I’m a little worried that today I’m going to go through the 2 day effect and feel like shit. Anyway, I got back home and had about an hour to get ready to go.

What amazed me was how easy it is to travel to a road race. I don’t know why, but I’d forgotten how easy racing on the road is. This is from an equipment, planning perspective. All I needed was my road bike, race wheels, bike bag, a couple water bottles.

I have to compare it to how much preparation and work it was to do any cyclo-cross weekend. Not even counting the countless hours in the garage making the bikes work correctly, but just the amount of stuff you need, just in case, is amazing. It is somewhat the same in MTB racing. Tires, extra tubes, quickfills, etc.

Riding for Wheaties Schwinn was the first time that I had a race bike and a training bike. Before then, there wasn’t a luggage fee for bikes, so it wasn’t much of a hassle to travel with a bike. We didn’t take much care in packing the bikes. They got crashed, repainted fairly often. Whenever there was a team van at the race, we wouldn’t have to bring a bike. But, lots of races, all the support flew too. So we had to bring our training bikes.

Our race weekends were pretty in and out. That was to get to the race as late as possible and leave on the first flight after. By the first flight after, I mean if the race finished at 4 pm, I’d get a flight at 5 or so. Back in those days, if I could get to most any airport 15 minutes before the flight, it was all good. That was with a completely assembled bike and a bike bag. I could get my bike into a bag and on its way down the conveyer belt in less than 2 minutes. Rear derailleur off, seat and seat post off, wheels beside the frame and zip. I still don’t quite understand why my bike wasn’t completely destroyed most every time I flew. But it was exactly the opposite. I think I’ve only had my bike dinged maybe twice my whole life. That is out of flying 100’s, if not 1000’s, of flights. Of course I’ve had a few wheels knocked out of true, but that isn’t such a problem usually.

I’ve flown with 3 bicycles in one bike bag. That is my record, 3 bikes and one extra set of race wheels. It was when I flew to a race weekend in Miami that did Coconut Grove and also a Gant MTB race the same weekend. I flew with both my bikes. Trudi raced the MTB race and all I did was lower the seat and that was it. The reach was pretty long, but that was how it went. She won the women’s Gant race and for that they gave her a new Fuji MTB. She’d won a bunch of these already and we didn’t have much of a problem selling them right after the race. This race we did. MTB racing hadn’t picked up in South Florida and the bike was small, so we had to bring it back. It was lucky I had some time to completely disassemble those bikes, because it took a while and it was tight. Plus, it probably weighed 100 lbs or so.

I wrap my tubes with plumber’s pipe wrap now. I don’t do much other than take the rear dropout off, seat/seat post and turn the handlebars under. I use an old Athalon bike bag from the Levis’ days. We put new beefy zipper in them a few years ago and they work great. I have no use for a hard case or soft cast with wheels. It is just too much weight and it takes too much time to pack the things to make it worth the while. I do have cut cardboard on the side to protect it some. You wouldn’t think it does much, but it does.

Anyway, what a refreshing day it was packing to go to a road race. And no, I didn’t forgot my helmet on the first trip of the year.

FInished package all safe and sound in La Jolla.